FRANKFORT — Current Kentucky state employees and retirees packed the Capitol Rotunda to encourage lawmakers to rethink some proposals made by a task force on public pensions last year.Calling themselves the Kentucky Public Pension Coalition, the group of more than a dozen interested organizations encouraged their members to tell lawmakers not to switch to a hybrid pension plan for new hires and to reinstate cost of living adjustments every year.Bill Londrigan is the president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO and a member of the coalition. And he says a study by the group shows a hybrid 401K plan reduces benefits year after year.“You know if you look at it, you’ll see the estimates decrease benefits over the long term, something we’re totally against,” he saysHelen Cottingim is a bus driver trainer from Boone County. And she says lawmakers need to fully fund the pension systems, and then leave it alone.“So you know I’m here advocating that you know any changes did not impact the people that are going to retire. And that the future people that we protect their retirement because we have to have people to continue on,” she says.Lawmakers agree that changes must be made to the struggling pension systems,but there isn’t consensus on when to tackle such problems.
